RIOT ACT AND KAINE TOUR – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Tour Trailer

How did this tour come about? Well, I was contacted by Giles Lavery (GLM-Artists (Artist Management)/Global Rock Records) not long before our tour with Chirs Holmes earlier this year and asked if we would be interested in putting on some dates with Riot Act, ahead of their visit to British Steel Festival in France in October, where they would be playing the classic Riot album Fire Down Under in full. We met Riot Act last year when we both supported Lillian Axe on their UK tour last year, and they were both brilliant guys and a fantastic live band Fire Down Under is a favourite album of mine, so it was a no-brainer for me!

So, what was the logic behind the venue choices? We are an East Anglian band, and our network of venues and audience is based in and around these areas. These are all venues I know and trust, and venues I knew we could sell tickets at. The worst thing for a band coming from abroad is to come to the UK and play to small crowds in venues that aren’t suitable. If we travelled further afield to say the midlands, northeast, and northwest there would be a greater risk of lower attendance due to our draw being a lot lower in those places, and lacking the network and contacts in those areas to promote those shows well. If we had gone to Scotland and Wales, there would have been similar issues. We also had to keep travel costs down, travel times reasonable, and enable an easy trip to France for Riot Act. We’ve played it safe, and so far the decision has proven to be the right one, despite a few cheap digs at us online from other promoters!

So, for those who do not know, who are Riot Act and why do you need to see them live?

Riot Act was formed by former Riot members Rick Ventura and Lou Kouvaris alongside vocalist Don Chaffin, born in Long Island New York, Don has toured the U.S.A. opening for Godsmack, Foreigner, Disturbed, Alice in Chains, Powerman 5000, Dr. John, Steve Howe of Yes, Robbie Krieger of The Doors, Vanilla Fudge and more. Don is the Lead Vocalist for the new band RED LAMB which features Dan Spitz (Anthrax ) and is co-produced by Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) Don is also the Lead Vocalist for Voices of Extreme (formally co-managed by Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden). Since 1995, Don has worked hand in hand as co-writer and co-producer with the legendary team of Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz from the Kasenetz and Katz Allstars. Don is currently the new Lead Vocalist for the project featuring RAM JAM. In addition, Don has performed countless appearances with projects such as O2 / LUB / John Macaluso Union Radio / Empyreon / and many more. Expanding his palette of well-known music Icons, Don has also worked with Jim Bralower and Ace Frehley of Kiss.

On bass is Paul Ranieri, born in Flushing NY has been playing professionally since he was 18 Known for his slapping technique and melodic style on Bass, his musicality has propelled him to the forefront with professional bass players across the country and internationally. He has played and recorded with dozens of artists, recently Mondo Electro, Stratopheerius, and Emmy Award-winning Electric Violinist Mark Wood and is also a Band leader, Clinician, Teacher, and Music Director . On drums is Claudio Galinski was part of the Argentinian Heavy Metal scene in the 80’s with his Thrash Metal Band ULTRAJE, sharing stages with such bands as Hermetica, Horcas, Lethal and Others. He moved to New York City in the 90s and immediately started playing with bands from the area, local gigs, studio work, and touring for several years. Claudio teamed up and joined forces with RIOT ACT to bring a solid heartbeat back to the life of classic songs with a new and fresh exciting approach. He endorses and plays instruments from such companies as Istambul Mehmet Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, ProMark Drumsticks, Gretsch Drums, Axis Pedals and Hardware, Phoenix Drum Co. snares, Gig Gloves, Shure in ears and mics. Claudio attends and performs yearly at the NAMM Show in Anaheim CA. Lou Kouvaris sadly passed away in 2020.

Rick Ventura was born in Brooklyn, NY. Along with Mark Reale, he comprised the guitar-driven, high-energy sound of Riot. Rick picked up the guitar at 16 listening to bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. His first guitar was a Univox Mosrite copy which he eventually smashed. “He then got his first real guitar, a white Fender Stratocaster after seeing clips of Jimi Hendrix. He went on to play and contribute songs on four studio albums and two live albums including the legendary Fire Down Under, touring the world with the likes of AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Rush, and so on. His guitar of choice is a vintage Les Paul which he calls “a mystery guitar” along with Telecasters and Stratocasters. Rick Ventura was a member of the classic Riot line-up that recorded the legendary albums Narita (1979), Fire Down Under (1981), Restless Breed (1982), and Born In America (1983). He also appeared on the Riot Live (1989) live album. Fire Down Under is considered the ultimate Riot album, having made the Billboard 200 on its original release.

Riot Act released their debut double album Closer to the Flame (Global Rock Records) in 2022 which features both original material and re-recordings of Riot classics.

As you will have read, this is a band of some pedigree and this will be a rare opportunity for classic Rock/Metal fans to see Rick perform the FIRE DOWN UNDER album in full, as well as all the other legendary Riot tunes from the 1980s. Having toured with them last year, I can confirm that they are an amazing live band, performing both their songs and those Rick did with Riot. To have these guys come from New York to these intimate, local venues is a real honour and I look forward to sharing the stage with them each night.

We’ve deliberately picked venues and areas which are easily reachable for the majority of people who regularly support our gigs, and priced the tickets at just £8 to make the events as affordable as possible. I have booked the venues, paid for the hire, promotion, and will be managing the tour overall to the best of my ability. This is something new for me, and I have had to use my experience from what I have organised with Kaine over the years to ensure it works as best as it can, as I said it is a privilege for someone like myself to have this opportunity and I am looking forward to kicking things off in Ipswich on Saturday!

You can still buy advanced e-tickets for the following dates/venues:

TOUR KICKS OFF IN 2 WEEKS! TOUR REHEARSALS AT UNIT ONE TODAY

Our tour with Riot Act kicks off in just two weeks time. Riot Act will be heading over to England for a short run of dates ahead of their festival appearance at British Steel in France. They will be playing the entirety of Riot’s Fire Down Under album. You can still grab tickets for the tour from here.

We will be ensuring we are in the best playing shape possible and working hard at Unit One Studios today on our tour set. We took a break from rehearsals last week to take the above photographs with Rachel W Photography. These were taken to help further promote the tour dates.

PHOTO SHOOT TODAY FOR FINAL TOUR PROMO

Today we’ll be visiting locations for the tour to take promotional pictures with Rachel W Photography. This is part of our final push to promote our forthcoming shows with Riot Act, coming from New York. We hope the more localised imagery will encourage more Rock and Metal fans in those areas to back the tour by buying tickets. We are absolutely determined to make this a success and are working hard to sell out every show.

You can grab tour tickets from here: https://www.firedownundertour.co.uk/

BACK TO REHEARSAL TODAY – FIRE DOWN UNDER TOUR STARTS THIS MONTH!

After yesterday’s Mearfest appearance at The Queens Hall, Nuneaton, we are back to rehearsal today. The focus today will be preparation for the forthcoming tour with Riot Act. Riot Act will be playing the entirety of the legendary Riot album Fire Down Under on this tour, and we’re really looking forward to hitting the road with them later this month. We are aiming to be in top playing condition for these shows!

Mearfest went well for us also, many thanks to Stevo for jumping on and filling in for Isaac yesterday. We think we got away with it! This was Stevo’s first appearance with the band for 5 years, and he had never played any of these songs live with us before, so we are thankful for his efforts to learn the music and help us out with this one.

TOUR UPDATE (ADVANCE SALES) + PATREON PACKS

The new Falling Through Freedom t-shirts are being printed and sent out over the coming weeks, the patches will arrive later, which will mean everything is all caught up for 2021-22 before we can announce the next package. We are sorry for the delay in getting everything out this time, it has been a mammoth amount of recording, printing, and posting!

Advance sales for Riot Act/Kaine – FIRE DOWN UNDER – England Tour 2023 so far:

We’ve been working hard to push the FIRE DOWN UNDER tour with Riot Act. We are in effect the promoters of these events, so it’s on us to make these shows a success. We’ve booked venues we know are good in areas we know we can usually get decent crowds. Riot Act is coming from New York to do this tour, and we’re hoping to sell out all these shows for them when they are over. We’ve priced the advance tickets at just £8 to make it as affordable as possible. If you are yet to buy a ticket, you can do it from here: https://www.firedownundertour.co.uk/category/tour-tickets

REHEARSALS TODAY – PREP FOR MEARFEST FLAME & FIRE DOWN UNDER TOUR

Last weeks rehearsal sessions.

Today we are having our second rehearsal following our successful tour with Chris Holmes. Last week (as seen above) we focused on rehearsing the songs we didn’t do on the tour and writing new material for a future release.

Today we head back into Unit One again for more rehearsals, we’ll be working on our set for Mearfest Flame in Nuneaton in September, and then our second tour of 2023 with Riot Act, who will be playing the entire Riot classic album Fire Down Under in full during the tour.

Tickets fore the Fire Down Under Tour are already selling well, with London already 20% sold months in advance of the show. If you wish to attend these shows, we advise you to book well in advance from here. Our last show at Three Wise Monkeys for example sold out in advance, and there were people who could not get into the venue on the night.

KAINE TO SUPPORT RIOT ACT FIRE DOWN UNDER 2023 TOUR IN ENGLAND

Kaine are pleased to announce their second tour of 2023, having recently returned from supporting W.A.S.P guitar legend Chris Holmes and his Mean Man band on his 65 Tour of the UK just this week.

Riot guitar legend Rick Ventura will be bringing his band Riot Act back to England for a short run of shows to warm up for British Steel Festival in France on October 7th. Riot Act will be playing the critically acclaimed classic Riot album FIRE DOWN UNDER in full and other classic Riot tunes.

Kaine will be joining them as the main support throughout the tour, having met the band on their previous UK Tour where they both toured alongside Lillian Axe.

Tickets will be available from the venue’s box offices and are on sale now from www.firedownundertour.co.uk – all tickets will be £8 in advance and £10 on the door. These are very limited, so book in advance to avoid disappointment.

  • 30th of September 2023: The Music Room, Ipswich (ENG)
  • 1st of October 2023: Waterfront, Norwich (ENG)
  • 3rd of October 2023: Portland Arms, Cambridge (ENG)
  • 4th of October 2023: Three Wise Monkeys, Colchester (ENG)
  • 5th of October 2023: The Birthplace of Iron Maiden – The Cart & Horses, London (ENG)
  • 7th of October 2023: British Steel Festival, Fismes, France (EU)

Rick Ventura was a member of the classic Riot line-up that recorded the legendary albums Narita (1979), Fire Down Under (1981), Restless Breed (1982), and Born In America (1983). He also appeared on the Riot Live (1989) live album. Fire Down Under is considered the ultimate Riot album, having made the Billboard 200 on its original release. 

Riot Act released their debut double album Closer to the Flame (Global Rock Records) in 2022 which features both original material and re-recordings of Riot classics. The band then joined Lillian Axe on their U.K Tour in 2022 to promote the album, alongside the English Heavy Metal band Kaine. 

This will be a rare opportunity for classic Rock/Metal fans to see Rick perform the FIRE DOWN UNDER album in full and all the other legendary Riot tunes from the 1980s. 

Riot Act: https://open.spotify.com/album/7wGAdkFVNndoFBEnmXjykD?si=Z_O3QAfAQBCnp3Vq8H7gzg

Fire Down Under: https://open.spotify.com/album/5yygmFcqz4aOo36rLXyNXO?si=SEGHlVVeQxC6nQkb4ztvBw

KAINE: OUR 2022 – TWO EPs, A NEW ALBUM AND A TOUR….

I thought I would do a write-up on the year with the band given it’s been our busiest ever.  In the early part of the year, we played a run of gigs put on by One Eye Toad Records which really helped us get back on the road again after the Covid-era restrictions were finally lifted in most cases.  Most of these gigs were with Neverworld and Planet Fatale, two bands we have played with on a number of occasions over the years and with who we enjoy playing alongside. It’s worth mentioning that John Morter who organised these gigs and helped us get back to a regular gigging schedule sadly passed away last month. For all of his hard work and dedication to the scene, he will be greatly missed.

Coda – 9/3/2022

During that run of gigs, we had a one-night-only reunion with Anthony Murch on lead guitar. Ant was in the band from 2012-2015 and played on our first two albums. Anthony again played songs from both his time in the band and later albums since his departure.  He’s currently playing alongside our former drummer Chris MacKinnon (who likewise joined in 2012, but after our debut album before leaving in 2018) in a band called It’s Not A Phase Mum, covering the 2000’s era classics which can be found here.

We made our return to two of our favourite venues this year too, both the Melbourn Rock Club and the Rock Den in Hatfield, both of which were fun nights.

A large portion of the year has been taken up with recording, editing, mixing, mastering, and so on. We worked extremely hard to get our new album After Extinction finished this year, as well as recording a further 10 tracks for two EPs, one of which has been released digitally and the other is currently being worked on. I have said previously that I cannot remember a time the band has been busier and 2022 certainly was a challenging year, but I feel a great relief to know everything on our end is now completed and there is very little remaining to do going into 2023.

It is worth mentioning that there will be a new Falling Through Freedom t-shirt and patch coming to all our Patreon’s soon, with two EPs (which include a multi-disc set) on CD heading out to everyone paying £3 or more ASAP. We have been slightly delayed in getting these out due to the Extinction After EP still being finalised! These will be with you soon, depending on Royal Mail strikes!  

In August of course we joined the Lillian Axe/Riot Act (ex-Riot) tour as a replacement for Kim Melville. This is the first tour this line-up has done, and we had an amazing time on the road, and we are very thankful for the opportunity to play with two exceptional bands here in the U.K.

We aptly finished the year with two hometown shows in Colchester both at the Brewhouse on the 25th of November and Coda, on the 14th.

We also introduced a new Patreon tier, a band backer tier which was to help the band fund an opportunity we were recently offered. Without giving too much away at this stage, an official offer/contract has come through and we used some of the new Patreon funds to have the offer independently accessed by an expert, as well as general guidance on the best route forward for the band in 2023, with more the be revealed at a later date.

LILLIAN AXE, RIOT ACT AND KAINE 2022 – FULL WRITE UP

I thought I would do a tour write-up while the whole experience was still fresh in my mind. First things first, it was a great week and we loved getting out there and playing to people up and down the country in England as well as taking trips to Scotland and Wales, we appreciate everyone who turned up to support these gigs, and to meet so many of you out there. It was a great experience. I have all the footage and will be uploading all of it over the coming weeks.

First things first, many have asked how this tour came about. Originally Kim Melville was meant to have done the tour, and for one reason or another couldn’t and a friend of mine, Claire Moat, had put me in touch with the people running this tour about maybe Kaine being the support. There was no buy-on, and I must make that clear, nobody asked us for any money for this tour. We did however provide our backline, as these bands were coming over from the US. I also volunteered some of our time and resources to the tour’s promotional and social media aspects. Once all the details were confirmed that was that and we were booked. We were fully behind supporting this tour in any way we could.

Our first night was in Wolverhampton, and we were all up very early from 4-5 am respectively to collect the van from the hiring company, ensure everything was as it should be, and load the vehicle with our backline and our merchandise before heading up to Wolverhampton which is a 3–4-hour trip from where we set off from in Essex. We got to the venue early and met the guys from Riot Act for the first time outside of the venue, whereas Lillian Axe had stayed at the venue having arrived the night before. The guys from Riot Act were instantly very friendly and once we were allowed inside, we were able to start setting up the backline for the show.

The venue was the Robin 2, which is in Bilston although in the Wolverhampton area, aside from some compatibility issues with some of the US gear with our UK backline, the usual teething problems you can get, everything went as smoothly as it could, and of course, we met Lillian Axe for the first time who were equally friendly and supportive. The Robin is a great venue with great sound both on and off stage and I was very excited to both play the set and see Lillian Axe and Riot Act play for the first time.

We got up there and it was great, the audience was very receptive, and we enjoyed ourselves despite the lack of sleep. Aside from the early start and load-in, we had of course rehearsed the day before and were thus tired! Watching both Riot Act (who were playing a set of classic Riot songs) and Lillian Axe for the first time was amazing, both bands were on top form despite such a long trip, and it was genuinely extremely exciting for me to play on the same bill, not only with musicians and performers of that level, but bands so tight and entertaining on stage.

We then went to Newcastle the next day we had only about 4 hours of sleep, which would be the standard for this tour and played Trillian’s for the first time. We had of course played the o2 in Newcastle back in 2014 during the Mordred tour but hadn’t been back since. Trillian’s has a great reputation as a venue, and we were not disappointed, it’s a classic Rock Bar with a different vibe to the Robin the night before, but this created a more intimate show, and again the sound on stage and off was great, and we had a lot of fun to again a very receptive audience! Again, seeing both Riot Act and Lillian Axe in that venue with the Rock Bar vibe was great and with it being up close and personal, hearing the songs in that environment was a unique experience and I think the audience appreciated that.

Bradford was the day after, again a new venue for me and the band at the Nightrain. The Nightrain is a great venue with a big stage and great sound on and off, although we had some issues with power down the left-hand side we had to work on throughout the gig, which sometimes happens, the sound on stage was great although some people complained after the gig all the acts were too loud. The backstage area was clean and spacious, and we were all treated very well there.

After Bradford, we went to Bannermans in Edinburgh, a venue we had played several times over the years. Unfortunately, it was fringe week, so it was chaos as hipsters had laid siege to the city streets, making getting to the venue very difficult and the Binmen were on strike, leaving trails of rubbish everywhere. This was a real shame to see, Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it was upsetting to see it in that state, and the level of disrespect many of the fringe tourists had shown the city, especially with the aggressive and hostile people on the streets trying to get you to see their acts. I was surprised to see just how aggressive the marketing for these events was.

Anyhow, playing Bannermans, again similar to Trillian’s, in that it’s a different experience, and many of our Scottish-based support turned out on the night which made it feel like we were at home, rather than a long way from home, which we were. We have always loved Scotland, it has treated Kaine incredibly well over the years and this night was no exception. I promise we will be back sooner than 6 years next time! Again, seeing Riot Act and Lillian Axe up close in a venue like that was great and it’s a gig I won’t forget for a long time.

Now after Scotland, we had our next trip, to another Celtic nation, however, this was an 8-hour trip away in Swansea, Wales. We had played Swansea once before when only 1 punter watched us, and he nicked a t-shirt about 1 song into our set and took off! This was the most brutal trip of the tour and I think we ended up spending closer to 9 hours on the road with all the bank holiday traffic, and accidents on the road. My knees were hurting like hell in the back of the van!  We did make the Hanger 18 Venue in good time, the venue itself is big and again with great sound on and off stage, now while this was the least attended event of the tour everyone who did attend supported all the bands and was really into the music.

Something I feel I must say, is when I shared an image of Lillian Axe playing that night, it attracted a lot of negative comments and attention which for me was sad. The tour was a success and for that to be the one thing that attracted the most people to engage with us on was disappointing and disheartening because it was like some were wanting us to fail. There were far more people there than pictured, just sat down further at the back of the venue which is large. The audience who did attend loved it and were happy to have us there which is what matters above all else. There are reasons that the gig was less attended than the others, it was the last date/venue added and had the least amount of time to promote.

It wasn’t a case of the scene is dead, or that the world is ending, it was just how it worked out, the venue is great and the staff incredibly welcoming and accommodating and I would recommend people both support that great venue and play there. I am always sad to see the level of attention negative stuff gets over the positive.

Our final gig was at the Underworld Camden, our first time playing there and what a great set-up they have, the venue is great but the team there was very efficient and welcoming. This was our best-attended gig of the tour, but it was great to see so many of our regulars turn out and support us there. Unfortunately, my guitar had some issues during the set, so I had to switch to vocals as and when until we got that fixed, as we were on a tight timescale, but these things happen, it just so happened to be the biggest night of the tour! Toby’s guitar also broke during the gig, but we still had a lot of fun playing and meeting everyone there.

Overwhelmingly the tour was a great experience and success. What I will say about both Riot Act and Lillian Axe is they treated us all incredibly well on this tour and are great people and musicians, legends in our eyes, and we learned a lot from playing with them. They are bands who are not only playing the classics but are writing and recording new music and are incredible live, these aren’t two acts phoning it in just to relive past glories, these are bands that are very much alive and ready to do more great things. Please come and see them live next time they are in the UK! For me, getting to see them play their sets so masterfully each night was a dream and one of the best experiences of my life, and in music, and I wouldn’t trade this past week for the world.

Finally, I would like to thank both Riot Act and Lillian Axe for having us support them on this amazing tour, I wish them all the best going forward and I hope to see both bands again someday, hopefully here in the UK! A special shoutout to Al Moran, the man on the road with Lillian Axe who worked hard every night to help make these shows happen and for all his entertaining stories over the week! I would like to thank Claire Moat for helping put us together, Giles Lavery from Global Rock Records, Ciaran Campbell of SD Entertainment, and Pete Solynskyj of Total Concept management for all their work on the tour, who were all extremely helpful and we are very grateful for their efforts to make this happen. Finally, I would also like to thank our long-suffering roadie and everyman Alex Odinson for all his hard work on the tour and our guitar tech Charles “In charge” Franklin for all his efforts in making this tour a success for us. Both offered their time for free to help us out and this means the world.

We’d love the opportunity to tour like this again, it was a dream come true for us and everyone has been so supportive. When we came together 4 years ago as this incarnation of the band, we dreamed of being able to go out there and do something like this and to make it a reality was amazing. Being the first band on every night and being unknown is always a difficult job as you usually have the fewest people watching you and the audience doesn’t know your material. Support bands often had an unfair reputation of not being very good! We had to fight that every night and win people over. Some punters didn’t arrive until after our set, some reviewers chose to ignore us on the night, all of which is just part of being an opening act.

Of course, people would like to know about the money side of things, and I can confirm we were not paid for these shows and relied entirely on merch money on the tour. This is something we agreed on going into this to make it happen. I am not going to get into too many details but we, of course, lost money on this tour, we had to buy hotels for 6 people for 5 nights, hire the van, pay young drivers deposits, fill up diesel at record high prices, and travel some distance, between all that and food, as well as promotion, including sending out letters and what not we lost money but we expected this would be the case going into it. What I can say is, that we did roughly £1000 on merchandise during the tour, and while that doesn’t cover all the losses, is a huge help.

Ultimately this wasn’t about the money, it was what could be our only opportunity to live our dream and do a tour supporting two legendary bands, and there are no regrets in doing it.

Thanks to everyone who came and supported us, who bought the merch, to the new supporters and friends of old, this was an amazing experience for Kaine.

Love,

Rage

KAINE ON TOUR – NEXT WEEK! COMING TO WOLVERHAMPTON, NEWCASTLE, BRADFORD, EDINBURGH, SWANSEA AND LONDON!

We will be setting off on tour next week in support of Lillian Axe and Riot Act! We are looking forward to hitting the road at the following dates/venues:

  • August 22nd, 2022 – Robin 2, Wolverhampton (buy tickets)
  • August 23rd, 2022 – Trillian’s, Newcastle (buy tickets)
  • August 24th, 2022 – Nightrain, Bradford (buy tickets)
  • August 25th, 2022 – Bannermans, Edinburgh (buy tickets)
  • August 26th, 2022 – Hangar 18, Swansea (buy tickets)
  • August 27th, 2022 – Underworld, Camden, London (buy tickets)